Can ALE simulate the breakup of a air bubble (into two or more air bubbles) in water? Thanks!

Dr. Hrvoje Jasak

May 29, 2003 10:54

Re: Can ALE handle air bubble breakups?

Doubt it - ALE (just as the moving mesh FVM) moves the mesh to follow the interface. In this setup, you would set up the calculation by meshing the surface and then moving it to conform to the motion of the bubble. I've done a calculation like that with FOAM.

However, if you want the bubble to break with this technique (surface tracking), the mesh will change the topology (1 interface into 2) so you either need a clever mesher built into your code (working on it!) or a different methodology. in FOAM, we've also done surface capturing, where the problem is solved on a static mesh and the position of the interface is followed using a volume fraction equation. In that case there's no problem with bubble breakup - in fact the predictions were excellent! For examples, have a look at: